Oceans are modified at the surface by winds and by the exchange of heat with the atmosphere. The effect of changing atmospheric information that is available to drive an ocean model of north-west Europe, which can simulate small-scale details of the ocean state, is tested. We show that simulated temperatures agree better with observations located near the coast around the south-west UK when using data from a high-resolution atmospheric model, and when atmosphere and ocean feedbacks are included.

In the real world the atmosphere, oceans and land surface are closely interconnected, and yet the prediction systems used for weather and ocean forecasting tend to treat them in isolation. This paper describes the third version of a regional modelling system which aims to represent the feedback processes between sky, sea and land. The main innovation introduced in this version enables waves to affect the underlying ocean. Coupled results from four different month-long simulations are analysed.

In the real world the atmosphere, oceans and land surface are closely interconnected, and yet prediction systems tend to treat them in isolation. Those feedbacks are often illustrated in natural hazards, such as when strong winds lead to large waves and coastal damage, or when prolonged rainfall leads to saturated ground and high flowing rivers. For the first time, we have attempted to represent some of the feedbacks between sky, sea and land within a high-resolution forecast system for the UK.

The Met Office provides a range of services in the marine environment. To support these services, and to ensure they evolve to meet the demands of users and are based on the best available science, a number of scientific challenges need to be addressed. The paper summarises the key challenges, and highlights some priorities for the ocean monitoring and forecasting research group at the Met Office.

This paper describes the Radio Occultation Processing Package, ROPP, which is a suite of freely available programs provided by EUMETSAT for the processing of radio occultation data. Its capabilities are briefly reviewed, and examples of its use are given. Some current and prospective uses of ROPP are listed.

A new high-resolution ocean model at 1.5 km has replaced the 7 km system for delivering short-term forecasts of the North-West European Shelf seas. The products (temperature, salinity, currents, and sea surface height) are available on the Copernicus Marine Service catalogue. This study focuses on the high-resolution impact on the quality of the products delivered to the users. Results show that the high-resolution model is better at resolving the variability of the physical variables.

The Elbe estuary is subject to vigorous tidal forcing from the sea side and considerable biological inputs from the land side. Our 3D numerical coupled physical-biogeochemical integrates these forcing signals and provides highly realistic hindcasts of the associated dynamics. Model simulations show that the freshwater part of Elbe estuary is inhabited by plankton. According to simulations these organism play a key role in converting organic inputs into nitrate, the major inorganic nutrient.

Oceans are modified at the surface by winds and by the exchange of heat with the atmosphere. The effect of changing atmospheric information that is available to drive an ocean model of north-west Europe, which can simulate small-scale details of the ocean state, is tested. We show that simulated temperatures agree better with observations located near the coast around the south-west UK when using data from a high-resolution atmospheric model, and when atmosphere and ocean feedbacks are included.

In the real world the atmosphere, oceans and land surface are closely interconnected, and yet the prediction systems used for weather and ocean forecasting tend to treat them in isolation. This paper describes the third version of a regional modelling system which aims to represent the feedback processes between sky, sea and land. The main innovation introduced in this version enables waves to affect the underlying ocean. Coupled results from four different month-long simulations are analysed.

Errors of observations and numerical model data are analysed with a focus on heterogeneous coastal areas. An extension of the triple collocation method is proposed, which takes into account gradients in the collocation of datasets separated by distances which may not be acceptable for a nearest-neigbour approximation, but still be feasible for linear or higher order interpolations. The technique is applied to wave height data from in situ stations, models, and the Sentinel-3A altimeter.

Land–surface interactions with the atmosphere are key for weather and climate modelling studies, both in research and in the operational systems that provide scientific tools for decision makers. Regional assessments will be influenced by the characteristics of the land. We improved the representation of river flows in Great Britain by including a dependency on the terrain slope. This development will be reflected not only in river flows, but in the whole water cycle represented by the model.

We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 26 precipitation datasets for the US using the Stage-IV gauge-radar dataset as a reference. The best overall performance was obtained by MSWEP V2.2, underscoring the importance of applying daily gauge corrections and accounting for reporting times. Our findings can be used as a guide to choose the most suitable precipitation dataset for a particular application.

The increase of data quality of wind and wave measurements provided by the new Sentinel-3A satellite in coastal areas is demonstrated compared to measurements of older satellites with in situ data and spectral wave model simulations. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the wave model to wind forcing is evaluated using data with different temporal and spatial resolution, where an hourly temporal resolution is necessary to represent the peak of extreme events better.

Tide predictions based on tide-gauge observations are not just astronomical tides; they also contain periodic sea level changes due to the weather. Forecasts of total water level during storm surges add the immediate effects of the weather to the astronomical tide prediction and thus risk double-counting these effects. We use a global model to see how much double-counting may affect these forecasts and also how much of the Highest Astronomical Tide may be due to recurrent weather patterns.

We compared land surface model simulations forced by several meteorological datasets with observations over the Euro-Mediterranean area, for the 1979–2012 period. Precipitation was the most uncertain forcing variable. The impacts of forcing uncertainty were larger on the mean and standard deviation rather than the timing, shape and inter-annual variability of simulated discharge. Simulated leaf area index and surface soil moisture were relatively insensitive to these uncertainties.

This paper describes the next-generation ocean forecast model for the European NW shelf, AMM15 (Atlantic Margin Model, 1.5 km resolution). The current forecast system has a resolution of 7 km. While this is sufficient to represent large-scale circulation, many dynamical features (such as eddies, frontal jets, and internal tides) can only begin to be resolved at 0–1 km resolution. Here we introduce AMM15 and demonstrate its ability to represent the mean state and variability of the region.

Land surface interactions with the atmosphere are key for weather and climate modelling studies, both in research and in the operational systems that provide scientific tools for decision makers. Regional assessments will be influenced by the characteristics of the land. We improved the representation of Great Britain river flows by including a dependency on terrain slope. This development will be reflected not only in river flows, but in the whole water cycle represented by the model/system.

In the real world the atmosphere, oceans and land surface are closely interconnected, and yet prediction systems tend to treat them in isolation. Those feedbacks are often illustrated in natural hazards, such as when strong winds lead to large waves and coastal damage, or when prolonged rainfall leads to saturated ground and high flowing rivers. For the first time, we have attempted to represent some of the feedbacks between sky, sea and land within a high-resolution forecast system for the UK.

This study represents the most comprehensive global-scale precipitation dataset evaluation to date. We evaluated 13 uncorrected precipitation datasets using precipitation observations from 76 086 gauges, and 9 gauge-corrected ones using hydrological modeling for 9053 catchments. Our results highlight large differences in estimation accuracy, and hence, the importance of precipitation dataset selection in both research and operational applications.

An update to an ocean modelling configuration for the European North West Shelf is described. It is assessed against observations and climatologies for 1981–2012. Sensitivities in the model configuration updates are assessed to understand changes in the model system. The model improves upon an existing model of the region, although there remain some areas with significant biases. The paper highlights the dependence upon the quality of the river inputs.

The dataset combines the results of 10 global models that describe the global continental water cycle. The data can be used as input for water resources studies, flood frequency studies etc. at different scales from continental to medium-scale catchments. We compared the results with earth observation data and conclude that most uncertainties are found in snow-dominated regions and tropical rainforest and monsoon regions.

The Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas (COSYNA) was established in order to better understand the complex interdisciplinary processes of northern seas and the Arctic coasts in a changing environment. Particular focus is given to the heavily used German Bight in the North Sea. The automated observing and modelling system is designed to monitor real-time conditions, to provide short-term forecasts and data products, and to assess the impact of anthropogenically induced change.

SeaConditions aims to support the users by providing the environmental information in due time and with adequate accuracy in the marine and coastal environments, enforcing users' sea situational awareness. SeaConditions consists of a web and mobile application for the provision of meteorological and oceanographic observation and forecasting products. The iOS/Android apps were downloaded by more than 105 000 users and more than 100 000 users have visited the web version (www.sea-conditions.com).

Reduction of wave forecasting errors is a challenge, especially in dynamically complicated coastal ocean areas such as the southern part of the North Sea area. We study the effects of coupling between an atmospheric and two nested-grid wind wave models. Comparisons with data from in situ and satellite altimeter observations indicate that two-way coupling improves the simulation of wind and wave parameters of the model and justifies its implementation for both operational and climate simulation.

Accurately representing coastal and shelf seas in global ocean models is one of the grand challenges of Earth system science. Here, we explore what the options are for improving this by exploring what the important physical processes are that need to be represented. We use a simple scale analysis to investigate how large the resulting models would need to be. We then compare this with how computer power is increasing to provide estimates of when this might be feasible in the future.

This study addresses the impact of wind, waves, tidal forcing and baroclinicity on the sea level of the German Bight during extreme storm events. The role of wave-induced processes, tides and baroclinicity is quantified, and the results are compared with in situ measurements and satellite data. Considering a wave-dependent approach and baroclinicity, the surge is significantly enhanced in the coastal areas and the model results are closer to observations, especially during the extreme storm.

This paper describes coastal ocean forecasting practices exemplified for the North Sea and Baltic Sea. It identifies new challenges, most of which are associated with the nonlinear behavior of coastal oceans. It describes the assimilation of remote sensing, in situ and HF radar data, prediction of wind waves and storm surges, as well as applications to search and rescue operations. Seamless applications to coastal and estuarine modeling are also presented.

This white paper addresses key scientific challenges and research priorities for the development of operational oceanography in Europe for the next 5–10 years. Knowledge gaps and deficiencies are identified in relation to common scientific challenges in four EuroGOOS knowledge areas: European ocean observations, modelling and forecasting technology, coastal operational oceanography, and operational ecology.

This study addresses the impact of coupling between wind wave and circulation models on the quality of coastal ocean predicting systems. This topic reflects the increased interest in operational oceanography to reduce prediction errors of state estimates at coastal scales. The improved skill of the coupled forecasts compared to the non-coupled ones, in particular during extreme events, justifies the further enhancements of coastal operational systems by including wind wave models.

The Singapore government commissioned a modelling study of regional projections of changes in (i) long-term mean sea level and (ii) the frequency of extreme storm surge and wave events. We find that changes to long-term mean sea level constitute the dominant signal of change to the projected inundation risk for Singapore during the 21st century, these being 0.52 m(0.74 m) under the RCP 4.5(8.5) scenario.

The Met Office provides a range of services in the marine environment. To support these services, and to ensure they evolve to meet the demands of users and are based on the best available science, a number of scientific challenges need to be addressed. The paper summarises the key challenges, and highlights some priorities for the ocean monitoring and forecasting research group at the Met Office.

Automated measurement systems called FerryBox are installed on cargo ships in the North Sea. Operational model forecasts have been compared to FerryBox data of water temperature and salinity. We wanted to know how well the simulations agree with the observations. We found out that water temperature simulation gives satisfying results, while salinity simulation still could be improved. It turned out that assimilation of observational data into operational models gives strong benefits.

This paper describes the Radio Occultation Processing Package, ROPP, which is a suite of freely available programs provided by EUMETSAT for the processing of radio occultation data. Its capabilities are briefly reviewed, and examples of its use are given. Some current and prospective uses of ROPP are listed.

First modeling work comparing SHYFEM and MITgcm performance in the north Adriatic Sea; the treatment of heat/mass fluxes at the surface affects the models skill to reproduce coastal processes; high resolution is needed close to the coast, while lower resolution in the offshore is adequate to capture the dense water event; correct river discharges and temperature are vital for the reproduction of estuarine dynamics; non-hydrostatic processes do not influence the dense water formation.

Forecasts of ocean temperature, salinity, currents, and sea height can be improved by linking state-of-the-art ocean and wave models, so that they can interact to better represent the real world. We test this approach in an ocean model of north-west Europe which can simulate small-scale details of the ocean state. The intention is to implement the system described in this study for operational use so that improved information can be provided to users of ocean forecast data.

Forecasts of ocean temperature, salinity, currents, and sea height can be improved by linking...